Wasn't there supposed to be no sacrifices made?
It was true that there was no guarantee that the Demon King would have been defeated if Zakkart's plan had been put into practice. But shouldn't Bellwood have listened to his opinions?
Gunpowder and matchlock weapons, land mines and steam engines – Bellwood had opposed Zakkart at every turn, stopping all of his ideas.
It was true that what Zakkart had in mind was dangerous and would spell disaster for this world if misused. After hearing it, even Vida had countless discussions with him about it, thinking that it would be dangerous to put the plan into practice exactly as he had suggested it.
But even so, she had discussed it with him. She hadn't denied him without hearing what he had to say.
And no matter what she did, she couldn't let go of her doubt surrounding the events when the Demon King had closed in.
Didn't Bellwood and Alda abandon Zakkart and his companions on purpose?
Wasn't it possible that they had intentionally allowed themselves to be deceived by the Demon King's trap?
There was no evidence. If someone told her that she was delusional, that would be the end of the discussion. And even Vida thought that it would be ungrateful of her to accuse Bellwood of such a thing, when he had come to Lambda from a completely unrelated world, risked his life and finally defeated the Demon King.
However, she couldn't trust him.
But she distrusted Rodcorte even more. What was important to that god was the souls being reincarnated in the worlds he had jurisdiction over; he probably wasn't interested in anything else. Even with these events occurring, he probably thought nothing more than, "I'm glad the Demon King was defeated."
If the Demon King had told Rodcorte, "I will create as many humans as you want in place of the gods that were originally in this world, so lend me your strength," then perhaps Rodcorte would have accepted. Vida couldn't help but to think this.
And the loss of Zakkart and the other creation-minded champions was great not only to Vida, but to Lambda as a whole.
After they had fallen, Bellwood was forced to fight a harsh war that was once again tipped in the Demon King's favor. Gods, members of the volunteer army and the refugees that they had been protecting were lost in rapid succession.
And even now, Bellwood and the others were struggling to restore this ruined world. Because their powers were specialized for battle, though they were able to exterminate the monsters left behind by the Demon King, they were nothing more than amateurs when it came to agriculture and manufacturing.
That was exactly why they needed Vida to cooperate with them, but...
Instead of cooperating with them, I made a different decision.
Vida thought of creating her own circle of transmigration system for this world and creating new "people" who could survive even in this world that was overrun by monsters.
She planned to rebuild and restore this world, and reunite with Alda and the other gods.
Alda and Bellwood opposed her as usual, but this was something that she had expected.
They would have acknowledged me if my endeavors paid off. I thought that I had no other way to convince them when words wouldn't reach them.
That was why she didn't listen to the words of Alda and the others. If one asked her whether she wanted to get back at them, she wouldn't have denied it, however.
And then Vida gave birth to numerous new races. She poured Vitality into Zakkart's remains and successfully turned him into an Undead.
She had wanted to fully resurrect him, but her attempts failed thoroughly. It seemed that without the soul at hand or someone who could control death itself, reversing life and death was impossible.
That was why she was only able to create a puppet with fragments of Zakkart's memories and knowledge, that moved based on the few residual thoughts remaining in his body.
But I don't think he would be angry. He was always saying that whatever can be used should be used, as if it was his favorite phrase.
And so, with the help of the former evil gods who had joined her as subordinate gods, she imitated the circle of reincarnation system left behind by the Demon King, creating her own original system.
Though it did work, it was nothing more than an imitation of the Demon King's system that was itself an imitation of Rodcorte's system, so bugs would constantly appear. It was a dangerous product that she couldn't take her eyes off.
Vida was forced to realize that no matter how unpleasant Rodcorte was, he was a specialist when it came to this field.
But I didn't want to give up. I looked for more help. I created new races with those who cooperated with me, and loaded the souls of the new children onto my system.
Vida thought that the system needed experience to improve. Though it would cause them discomfort at first, it was necessary for the children she had created to turn the wheels of the system and be born anew.
But fortunately, at this point in time, the incomplete system was working well, considering that it was incomplete.
The number of children given birth to by Vida was steadily increasing as well.
Maybe it's because I imitated the Demon King's system, but my children are stronger and live longer than I expected, and some of them undergo large changes in appearance when their Rank increases. But I always intended to produce stronger children, so I thought that it was fine, didn't I?
Things were not fine. It was when Alda and the champions attacked her that she realized that she should have sat at a table and discussed things with Alda and the others sooner.
Bellwood and the other champions should have reached the ends of their lifespans long ago, but Alda had deemed them to be necessary for this world and preserved their youth.
Alda led the subordinate gods and followers who now supported him after their masters had perished or fallen into slumber, while Vida led the gods allied with her and the children she had given birth to. The two of them formed two separate groups that fought against each other.
Vida was defeated. In the end, her fate was determined by the fact that her enemy had champions on his side while she did not.
And the city for her children that had been created using Zakkart's knowledge was destroyed. Vida's divinity was stolen from her by Alda... Her authority as a goddess was revoked, and she suffered a deep wound.
Even so, she mustered all of her remaining strength, created a tall mountain range to the south of the Bahn Gaia continent and led her remaining children to take shelter there. After that, she collapsed and fell into a slumber.
I wonder how much time has passed since then?
Ten thousand years, twenty thousand years or perhaps even a hundred thousand years. She didn't know. Her power had failed to return, to the point that she couldn't tell.
As Vida's equal, Alda shouldn't have had the power to inflict an irreparable wound on her, but it seemed that he and his followers had brought her followers, the source of her power as a goddess... the ones who offered her prayers, to ruin by preventing them from growing in number.
Currently, all of the gods who had cooperated with Vida had fallen into slumber after having their divinity taken from them, or were worshipped just enough to lie dormant. Vida didn't know whether Talos and the others were unharmed or not. Vampires were strong among Vida's children; there was no small number of them who had fallen to the temptations of those who still tormented this world.
Why did things turn out this way? Why has Alda continued to do such harsh, cruel things?
The Demon King no longer exists, and the gods that were part of his army betrayed him and became our allies. They were doing their best to make up for what they did. So why do you still hate them? The one who tore their chance to atone into pieces is you. The one who teaches that criminals should atone for their wrongdoings, and that they are no longer criminals once they have finished atoning, is you.
Why do you hate the knowledge and technology from Earth so much? It's thanks to none other than the champions we summoned from that world, Earth, that we even still exist.
Why do you criticize my endeavors so much? The one who couldn't trust Rodcorte, the one who doubted him, is you.
Why do you try to destroy my children? Why haven't you noticed that the truly evil gods have taken advantage of that and built a nest inside your pocket?
At this rate, everyone will become exhausted and only destruction will await us, so why?
I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't understand.
At that moment, a certain premonition crossed Vida's mind. Perhaps it was caused by Zakkart's remains that were resting next to her, or a little of her power had been restored, or perhaps Ricklent and Zuruwarn were lending her some of their power from wherever they were gathering it. She didn't know. But it was a premonition nonetheless.
He will come back. I don't know why, but Zakkart... Keisuke will come back to this world!
The soul that had been formed when Rodcorte forcibly pieced together the broken fragments of the four champions' souls, the one that had been released into his system, would return to Lambda.
But...
In her premonition, Vida could see that he would be reincarnated into tragic circumstances and that he would end his own life, tormented by his own powerlessness. All of this would be instigated by Rodcorte.
"I can't let that happen."
This wasn't something that she could overlook.
He currently didn't have even fragments of memories from the past. His personality was completely different as well. But Vida couldn't abandon him.
Now that she thought about it, she hadn't been able to do anything for Keisuke and the others. She hadn't been able to repay them for anything.
So, to make up for it, she would repay them just a little bit now.
With this in mind, Vida sent several Divine Messages. She was worried that there wouldn't be anyone left to hear her voice, but it seemed that the Divine Messages had been delivered.
And the moment her premonition became reality, Vida mustered all of her power. Her hand was so powerless that her heart felt as if it would break from how pathetic she was, but even so, she extended it.
She supported the soul that had fallen into this world with her hand and scooped it up. As she did so, she noticed that three troublesome curses had been placed upon it.
"Rodcorte...!"
Vida couldn't undo the curses. But before she could feel disappointed, she noticed something peculiar about the soul.
She noticed that the soul was imbued with the Mana of an attribute that didn't exist in Lambda and yet was somehow familiar, and that the soul had an unusually large amount of blank space.
"I see, it has four champions' worth of blank space. And because Rodcorte forcibly put the pieces together, it created even more blank space. Even so, there is simply too much blank space, I have to fill it with power so that he isn't defeated by the curses... ah?"
To begin with, Vida tried to place the power of the life attribute that she had once ruled over into the soul. However, the peculiar Mana that the soul had already been imbued with engulfed that power and absorbed it.
"H-how strange. I wonder if it's because my power has waned. Well then, my divine protection... This isn't working, either?!"
When she tried to bestow it her divine protection, that was quickly engulfed as well. She had been aware that divine protections were difficult to bestow upon those who didn't believe in the god granting the divine protection, but the divine protection had been engulfed. Just what could this mean?
"Umm... Well then, what should I do?"
There were few things Vida was capable of doing now. She had previously been able to grant special powers and cheat-like abilities, but she didn't have the power to do that now. If she pushed herself she might be able to grant the soul a single power, but it would be terrible to see it being engulfed as well.
"Alright, let's do this!"
Vida scooped up the tiny amount of residual thoughts that were left in Zakkart's remains. In those residual thoughts, she wrapped some of her own blood that was running from her wound.
And then she added these to the soul. Perhaps because they had once been a part of the same soul, this time, they unified with the soul without any interference from the Mana.
"With this, this soul has received my blessing. Its unhappy destiny should become a little better. And though his growth may face walls, it won't face any limits. It will become easier for new Jobs to appear, and it should affect the people around him, too. Well, the bad luck in his future will get stronger, though. But this Mana, I've felt it somewhere before... No, it can't be."
And then Vida released the soul into the system that she had created herself. With his soul's compatibility, he would be born as either a Vampire or a Dhampir. And since most Vampires didn't make children normally now, it was likely that he would be born as a Dhampir.
He might be born into even harsher and crueler circumstances than if Vida hadn't interfered at all.
"Now, I just need everyone to hear my Divine Messages and make their move... I'm sorry that this is all I can do for you."
You risked your lives to save a world you had no connection to and even had your souls broken. I'm sorry that this is all I can do.
If possible, I want you to love this world.
The air, the wind, the earth, the greenery, the animals, the people, I want you to love everything.
I'm sorry that I'm burdening you with more expectations after I've relied on you so much already.
And then, Vida's consciousness sank into slumber once more.
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